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F1 Test: Are you ready to be a REAL FORMULA 1 Engineer! Do this test, send us your results and tell us about!
THE F1 TECHNOLOGY:
In this lesson, you'll have a front seat at one of the world's premier auto races — the Monaco Grand Prix, a renowned race on the hilly streets of Monte Carlo:
A modern Formula One (F1) race car is a conglomeration of precisely machined moving parts subjected to intense forces. Classical mechanics is a framework of rules for unraveling the forces at work in a wide class of mechanical systems.
The uniformity of these rules across systems and scales makes engineering new machines possible and provides a systematic path toward optimizing them.
In this course, you'll add these rules to your toolbox and apply them to a vast array of machines and systems.
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to explain why Formula One cars can take sharp turns much faster than ordinary automobiles without skidding off the road.
QUESTIONS:
You're on the pit crew of an esteemed race team and you're making a final check of the vehicle as it starts the warm-up lap before the race.
Few components of a race car are more important than the tires. The driver steers the car onto the circuit as you carefully watch the tires rotate in case any adjustments are needed:
The tires generally roll on the ground unless the tires are slipping.
A driver sitting inside a moving car will observe the road moving backwards. The part of the tire making contact with the road will also appear to be moving backward from the perspective of the driver. The top of the tire will appear to move forward in the the direction of the car.
2. Classical mechanics is focused on interactions and their consequences.
The tires push against the road and the road pushes back against the tires. Specifically, the surface of the road provides friction:
As long as the contact between the tires and the road surface is good, the force of friction acting on the tire propels the car forward.
The control and handling of the car depends on the force of friction between the surface and the tires. The tires must make make sufficient contact with the road surface for the force of friction to act.
Without friction — regardless of how fast the tires spin — the car can only move in one direction, and its direction cannot be changed.
Consider what it's like to change the direction of a moving car while on an icy road. With no friction between the tires and the road, the car cannot be controlled.
The friction between the tire and the road is the force that propels the car forward.
Cars are traditionally powered by an internal combustion engine that uses gasoline for fuel. The engine turns a crankshaft tied to the front and rear axles. The axles each turn two wheels that make contact with the road. Consequently, selecting the characteristics of the rubber on the tire is a strategic aspect of racing, but so is the shape of the car itself as it cuts through the air at more than 300 km/h
A race car driver is approaching the infamous Turn Six — a hairpin bend around 180∘
known for its technical difficulty during the Monaco Grand Prix. The driver takes the turn at a constant speed.
In which direction does the force of friction act on the tires to keep the car on its trajectory around the curve?
So, friction on the tires not only keeps the car moving around the curve but also provides the center-directed force.
A car will skid off a curve when the tires lose grip with the road.
Later in this course, we’ll learn about centripetal forces that keep an object on a circular trajectory.
Friction is crucial in driving, but when a car reaches high speeds other forces compete with friction to influence the car's motion.
One such force is air drag — a resistive force acting against the car's forward motion. Air drag is the force provided by air hitting the vehicle:
3. Intuitively, two forces can be added or subtracted from one another depending on whether they are applied in the same direction of in opposite directions.
If you've ever pushed a piece of heavy furniture, you know it's easier to move the furniture when it's on a set of wheels. The wheels reduce the amount friction force pushing against you.
Which requires a greater force from the engine as the car encounters air drag?
The forward force pushing on the tires and the force of air drag act against each other. Thus in order to overcome air drag and increase the car's speed, the forward force on the tires needs to be larger.
When the car is beginning to move at
0 km/h,
0 km/h, the air drag that opposes the forward force on the tires is minimal and the engine doesn't have to fight against the air to increase speed.
However, at higher speeds, the car has to push through more air at every second which opposes the forward force applied on the tires. Consequently, the engine needs to push harder to increase the car's speed. We'll analyze this in much greater depth in the Newton’s laws chapter of this course.
Because air drag is more significant at higher speeds, it takes a greater force to accelerate the car from
50 km/h to100 km/h
100 km/h than to accelerate from
0 km/h to
50 km/h.
4. Differences between the flow rate of air over and under the vehicle can cause lift. If the car lifts, the amount of friction between the road and the tires changes.
This is particularly dangerous as the cars navigate certain turns of the Circuit de Monaco much faster than commercially available vehicles would. But Formula One cars have an ingenious feature — wings attached to the body similar to an inverted airplane wing:
How can strategically placed wings enable F1 cars to go faster around turns?
Air drag imparts a significant force which the motor must overcome to accelerate forward.
Air flowing around the wing applies a force on the car. The wing on the car is shaped like an airplane wing, but it's upside-down.
On an airplane, a wing is shaped so that, at sufficiently high forward velocities, it produces lift that pushes the airplane away from the ground. This is a result of more collisions at higher speeds along the bottom of the wing compared to the top of the wing.
On the car, the wing is inverted. Thus, airflow over the wing pushes down, the opposite of lift on an airplane. The extra downward force increases grip between the tires and the road, and the car is less likely to skid.
Importantly, the downward force increases as the car's speed increases, allowing the hairpin turns on the Monaco Circuit to be taken at higher speeds.
n this lesson, we've entirely ignored the forces internal to the vehicle — for example, the torque on the driveshaft, axles, and various gears.
We've looked instead at some of the external forces — friction, air drag, and “grip” which later in this course we'll explore as the normal force.
EXAM QUESTION
EXAM QUESTION
When green paint is sprayed to the outboard suspension and brake duct assembly, what is the reason?
A- Motion tracking of the suspension
B- Lubrication of the suspension bearings
C- Visualising the airflow
D- Dye penetration for locating cracks in the structure
2. When a mechanic has placed a tube of the pit equipment into the F1 car's roll hoop, above the drivers head. What is the piece of equipment for?
A- Cooling the radiator
B- Starting the engine
C- Heating the brakes
D- Pressurising the turbocharger
3. What part at a Formula 1 car are in a brake package?
A- Clutch assembly
B- Rear axle and uproght assembly
C- The turbocharger
D- A heat exchange for the energy recovery system
4. What is the purpose of a frame structure fitted behind the rear wheel during testing?
A- Measuring tyre temperature
B- Measuring air flow velocity distribution
C- Measuring ground clearance
D- Measuring stress in the suspension members
5. Straight and slowing down for the corners. From that, what do you think the ble trace (3) represents
A- Steering Wheel Angle
B- Brake Pressure
C- Engine Speed or RPM
D- Fuel Remaining
CHASIS
CHASIS
SUSPENSION
SUSPENSION
STEERING +
STEERING +
HYDRAULIC SYSTEM
HYDRAULIC SYSTEM
POWER UNIT
POWER UNIT
ELECTRONICS
ELECTRONICS
WHEELS +
WHEELS +
AERODYNAMICS
AERODYNAMICS
SAFETY
SAFETY
BEHING THE ACTION: DESIGN ENGINEERS
BEHING THE ACTION: DESIGN ENGINEERS
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